EXCERPT

“What’s up for today?”

Hal made a final loop in the sprockets and took out the slack in the film. “Doctor Elton is on tap. According to Milsap, today is the big reveal.” He knocked a mote of debris off the top of a slide projector, a device still not in common use. Angling up from the main body of its case, a tray held small, individual photographic slides.

Hal sensed my interest. “We get all the latest gadgets.”

Outside, dawn broke in a medley of purple and orange. A nearby stand of live oaks was a black hump against the sky. Before anyone could speculate on the weather quality for the day ahead, Milsap entered the room, accompanied by a tall, gaunt fellow.

“For the benefit of Barber, this is Doctor Elton.”

The man smiled an acknowledgement in a manner to suggest he used muscles only for sitting idle. A prominent Adam’s apple bobbed in a long neck when he spoke to the others and me. “Today, I hope to clear up some questions brought up in group sessions. Milsap and I think it’s time you learned what is known about your origins.”He signaled Hal and the projector lit off, all fluttering light and rapid clicking.

Grainy silent, black and white images of pack animals made their way in a single file line through a wilderness. Men dressed in heavy clothes accompanied them. Wide hats dripped mosquito netting over their faces.

“Anyone ever hear of the Tunguska Event?” the doctor asked the room full of darkened faces.

“Wasn’t that the big banger that hit in Russia?” Heide’s harsh East End accent, a veteran of London back streets, grated on my nerves, the attractive wide mouth it issued from notwithstanding.

“That’s right, Eldridge, on June 30, 1908 to be exact.”

Doctor Elton indicated the donkey caravan unwinding on the pull down screen. “This is film of Professor Leonid Kulik’s expedition, taken in 1927. He was the first to make a scientific exploration of the site.”

The screen showed rows of full grown trees knocked over like matchsticks. Milsap took over. “This was unlike any meteor strike the world had seen. Professor Kulik found no impact crater. Based on the damage pattern he concluded the meteor exploded at an altitude of between two and five miles above ground.”

Doctor Elton took over again. I wondered if they prearranged the alternation to keep us awake at this tender hour. “The meteor levelled over eight hundred square miles of trees. That’s two thirds the area of Rhode Island. Fortunately, it struck in one of the least populated areas in the world.”

Ajax stirred. “With all respect, Doctor, what does this have to do with us?”

“Remember how in group discussion we established that for each of you memories began upon first contacting other people. Everything before that event has been erased. Moreover, by your own accounts you all entered society between the first and third of July 1908, only days after the Tunguska Event.”

“We celebrated my birthday on July second,” Ajax said.

“Do any of you remember what happened to the clothes you wore?”

Zoë volunteered her story. “The women in my family, all expert seamstresses were impressed by the quality of stitching. They remarked at the strangeness. No one had ever seen such a material. My mother put the outfit away in a nice box, intending it as a keepsake. A year or two later she checked on it. To her dismay, only dust remained.”​“I know we’ve discussed this before in earlier group meetings, but bear with me. Every article you had on you at the moment you entered society met the same fate.” Doctor Elton glanced at each Special. “We’ve spoken in detail about your family’s disappointment at the loss of these mementos, but have you ever speculated on the reason why?”

“Why? It just happened. Shoddy materials, I suspect,” Ajax said.

“Do you truly think the answer is that simple? What if the dissolution of the articles was the result of intelligent design?”

I’d had enough of the melodrama. “Speak plainly, Doctor. What are you getting at?”

The brows knitted on his narrow forehead in what passed for an expression preceding a revelation. “I believe the Tunguska Event wasn’t a meteor at all, but a manned spacecraft that exploded and you, the Specials, are the survivors.”

For a minute all of us except for Milsap and Doctor Elton sat in stunned silence, watching the spin of the projector’s upper spool while the last of the film ran out. Then Brian Robinson, silent to now, said. “You’re saying we’re spacemen?” He glanced at Zoë, adding. “And space women?”

Doctor Elton turned off the movie projector, putting the room mostly in darkness. “Yes, beings from another planet.”

I’m not sure how I’d take being labeled a Man from Mars, but Zoë and her comrades most certainly didn’t warm to the idea. Antagonistic expressions and unreceptive grumbles filled the room. Ajax spoke for the group. “What proof do you have?”

“None of you can remember your past before being found and entering society. Even you, Ajax, and you were at least ten in 1908.To protect you, I believe your memories were scrubbed and whatever you carried was destroyed by an unknown process.”

“Witchcraft, maybe?” Brian’s quip drew a titter from the women.

Doctor Elton stood his ground. “No, through technology far in advance of ours. Any evidence I’ve presented, so far is circumstantial. Now you get the proof. Hal, the first slide please.”

A woodland scene came on screen. “Beginning five years ago, I extensively combed the area for miles around where each of you was found, even yours Miss Eldridge. I hoped to find evidence of a craft that brought you to earth.” He motioned for the next three slides. “Each scene is where we believe one of you landed. Arriving three decades after the fact, we found only traces of dust made by an unknown process of disintegration.”

Brian’s state of denial represented the rest of the Specials. “So you found nothing?”

“What about my pendant?” Heide revealed a black cylindrical stone on a silver chain.“I’ve had it since they found me.”

Doctor Elton encouraged Heide to show it off. “Eldridge’s artifact is the only one found so far among the Specials. It exhibits a small pulsing internal light. We have yet to discover either function or purpose.”

Brian’s question arrived as an accusation. “If what you say is true, where did we come from?”

“Maybe we need look at Mars or Venus, but I think the truth lies much farther away, in another solar system.”

Hal stepped from the shadows. The edge of the slide projector’s beam illuminated his handsome profile. “If this is all like you claim, then how many more could there be?”

Milsap fielded that one. “A female on the west coast and maybe a second in England, we’re pretty sure of.”

“No sir, I meant in the whole world.”

“The Soviets have remained silent. There’s too much confusion in China to venture anything more than a guess.”

“And the Axis, what of them?”

Hal had asked the question on everyone’s mind. The one you lock away and hope it resolves itself, but knowing if it breaks out there’ll be an awful mess.

After consideration, Milsap answered. “The Germans may have a hundred or they may have none. We won’t know for some time. Our job is to do the best we can with what we have and hope, no pray, that it’s enough. The success of this endeavor, like every other, rests in God’s hands.” He walked among the Specials, patting a shoulder here, clutching a hand there. “When this project began, you were just another duty assignment. A lot has changed. In the months we’ve been together, except for Mary Ann my departed wife, I’ve come to know you better than anyone else in my life. Each of you, whether a Special or not, is a person of peerless honor and character. You’ve become like my children. I’ll never forget you. To the Specials, I’ll say this. Learning your origins may have been traumatic, but we couldn’t talk around it in group sessions forever. It had to come out and be digested before we go in the field. I promise you this. When the war is over and we’ve won, we’ll see about finding your home and returning you, or help make a good life here.”​His sudden stop left an awkward silence. I’d heard what I needed. He had my vote, and I started to clap. Zoë and Ajax followed suit, then the others. Hal was the last to join in.